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1:52 pm
31 July, 2009
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Ecologics
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Hi All,
As some of you may know we sell the OWL electricity meter here. We feel it's a great gadget and compliments the sale of solar panels as it really makes it obvious to you where you are spending your money in terms of electricity. We have successfully used it here at Ecologics Solar to give us a 40% reduction in our electricity bill over the last few months.
Most of this saving has come through one thing – our lights.. We have these old school flourescent lights throughout the building which were gobbling up electricity. By eliminating the bulbs that weren't required we have brought down our usage from 18kWh a day to about 11 kWh. That in itself is worth about Euro 383 a year to us in saving (0.15 cents x 7kwh saved a day x 365) – not a bad return for a unit that costs Euro 40.
See the graph below from the USB Connect software from the last 10 days showing our drop in electricity usage:
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9:37 pm
21 August, 2009
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NumberSix
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Hi Admin,
Can the USB Connect be used to download historical data from the Owl Electricity Monitor, or will it only capture data that is transmitted while the USB Connect is linked to a PC that is turned on?
Regards,
No.6
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11:37 am
22 August, 2009
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Ecologics
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Hi No.6 – the USB connect can only record and contain data from a direct link to the owl sensor but is not related to the owl monitor so unfortunately cannot record historical information contained there.
With the USB connect you need to keep the monitoring computer that is attached to the USB connect on for the entire time you wish to record. If this is not an option an you need turn the computer on and off then there is an export option where you can export your current data in excel format so it can be saved. I take screenshots of the various graphs as well as they can be handy..
hope this helps,
S.
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10:31 am
28 August, 2009
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NumberSix
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Hi Admin,
Tks for the clarification. I'm only looking at the unit for domestic use so wouldn't have a computer on all the time. The tracking capability of the Owl meter is probably sufficient for my needs.
I had one of the origial Owl meters (no accumulation of data) and it raised awareness of usage amazingly well. The family got used to watching it and were plugging things out and switching things off of their own accord. Saved me being the bad guy! :-)
Anyway, I'm interested in the capability of the new Owl Meter to provide data on cumulatinve usage by time period. I've given the old unit to a firend and will probably order the new one.
Regards,
No.6
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11:01 am
28 August, 2009
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Ecologics
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Great stuff Number Six – Out of curiousity any idea of the energy saved by using the last owl unit?
For your reference you can download a .pdf of the specs for the new OWL energy monitor here:
OWL USER GUIDE
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4:57 pm
3 September, 2009
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NumberSix
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In response to your question, it’s hard to put a specific figure on the saving but here is how the meter helped us. The original Owl unit highlighted the high electricity-usage items around the house, so we could prioritise and address. Swapping out the big tungsten bulbs and spot lights for eco-bulbs was a start. I know you could do this without a meter to measure the change or impact but it helped make it a ‘no brainer’.
The biggest offender was the electric shower, so a thermostatic mixer shower was fitted, using hot water that’s heated by the gas boiler. I know it still costs to heat water by gas so Phase 2 will be the solar panels! J
The meter certainly paid for itself when it highlighted abnormally high night-time usage readings, when the house should be ticking over at <100w. It turned out the immersion switch was being accidently and regularly knocked ‘on’ when putting things into the hotpress.
It’s a good gizmo!
No.6
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